“Printers” refer to reproduction devices in general, such as printers, facsimile machines, copiers, and related multi-function products. These printers produce images with marking materials on media. A printed image is comprised of pixels, which are small masses of marking material. Common marking materials include dry ink, toner, with and without metal particles, wet inks of many forms, such as aqueous ink, and solid inks, which are melted to generate liquid ink. The marking materials may be directly applied to media, either in sheet or web form, or to an intermediate imaging member before being transferred to media. The process of producing an image and fixing it to some form of media may require several steps and many components to perform the several steps.
The marking materials have many properties, each one of which may affect printer performance and copy quality. Using the proper marking materials helps ensure the reliable operation of the printer and satisfactory copy quality. Selection of marking materials in color printers is particularly important. In color printers, pixels of separate colors of ink are typically applied to the media to form the colored image. The amount of ink in a pixel and the distance between pixels affect the color shade and intensity of an image. The marking material for each color is placed in a separate ink supply and the ink from each supply is delivered to a corresponding print head that ejects ink for that particular color only. Some color printers use the primary colors of red, blue, and green, while other printers use colors of magenta, cyan, yellow, and black.
Previously known printers have installation sites or ink loaders into which ink may be installed. Installation sites may refer to, for example, fixtures to which an ink cartridge containing aqueous ink may be coupled or fixtures to which a toner cartridge containing dry ink may be coupled. An installation site may be provided for each color of ink used by the printer. An interface is typically exposed by removing an adhesive tape or the like before an ink cartridge is installed. The interface enables a controller in the printer to provide electrical control signals to the cartridge for selectively obtaining ink from the cartridge for use within the printer. Ink loaders in solid ink printers typically include multiple feed channels, one for each color, into which units of solid ink are loaded. The loader also includes some type of mover for directing the solid ink units through a feed channel to a melting device. The melting device heats the solid ink units and produces liquid ink. The liquid ink is provided to print heads for ejection onto an imaging member in pixel patterns.
To reduce the likelihood that an incorrect ink supply is placed in an ink installation site or an ink loader, the installation site fixtures or channel insertion ports are configured to identify ink supplies not having the necessary properties for use in the printer. For example, an insertion port for a feed channel may be covered by a plate having a cutout with a particular predefined shape. The predefined shape corresponds to a shape for a particular color of solid ink units, for example. The plate, therefore, helps identify solid ink units that are a color other than the color intended for the feed channel. For colors that are similar to one another, such as cyan and black, this feature helps prevent the melted ink supply from becoming contaminated with ink of the wrong color.
While fixture and loader configurations help identify ink cartridges or solid ink units for particular models of printers, these features may not be effective for ink intended for other models. For example, the plate described above with reference to a feed channel for one particular printer may have an opening that is substantially larger than a solid ink unit intended for use in another printer. Consequently, the smaller solid ink unit does not engage the perimeter of the opening and can be accepted within the insertion port of the loader. More robust methods for identifying ink cartridges, solid ink units, toner cartridges, and the like are desirable.